Cables for patch panels

[northeast_technician]

Hi I was just wondering, does anyone know of any kind of standard for colours of cables when wiring up a comms cab? For example yellow for wifi points green for networked printers etc? Or is it purley a matter of choice and preference on the administrators part?

 

Any thoughts would be kindly appreicated

[Steve21]

Generally it seems to be different every workplace.

 

Here it's generally blue for PoE, so wireless or phones etc.

Red~ normally printer.

Grey data

Others for SAN/VM etc etc

 

Steve

[plexer]

Whatever you want and document, we use RED for POE i.e RED = Power

 

Ben

[northeast_technician]

Makes sense

[CamelMan]

Don't know of a standard but we try to stick to:

Red - POE carrying cables

Yellow - data for phones / cameras

purple / grey - normal data.

 

But that's based on what we had available!

[tmcd35]

Lol, I actually sat down and produced a colour chart a few months back, then bought a load of cables. Yet to implement it though. The first cabinet is being repatched over half term. From memory I've gone for...

 

Grey - PC data points

Green - Servers

Blue - Switch uplinks

Black - Telephones

White - WiFi

Red - PoE

[northeast_technician]

Wow, can I just say thanks guys, didnt expect so many responses so quickly. I take my hat off to you all (if i had one on!!!)

[mslaterdws]

We split our network into lots of vlans and colour cables to the vlan so we can tell from the cab what vlan a port is in.

 

We use a lot so a few choice ones are:-

Yellow = classrooms

Purple = IT Rooms

White = offices

Orange = servers

Pink boots/white cable = printers

Black = cameras

Green = WiFi

 

I could go on but you get the idea. It kind of depends how picky you want to be. We also number each cable end in each cabinet to add in finding the cables from patch to switch.

[FishCustard]

Here there is (something) of a colour scheme, which I'll be extending/enforcing over the summer upgrade.

 

Grey/Blue (to become just blue) - regular data in cabinets and cable runs

Yellow - phones

Red - servers

Orange/Grey - regular data from port to PC

Purple - WiFi

Pink tag on cable - PoE carrier

[Marshall_IT]

Grey = pc links

Red = of patch links

Yellow =servers

Green = up links

Blue = Telephone / poe

 

Then another in the server room

 

Red = iSCSI

Green = vMotion

Blue = service console / management

Yellow = server data

 

 

I'm sure I'm forgetting a few!

[ass17]

We use:

 

Grey = PC

Yellow = uplinks

Green = printers

Red = wifi

Black = phones

Blue = servers

Orange = boilers

Pink = n/a

Purple = CCTV

White = n/a

[sparr0wn]

Grey - PC data points

Green - Servers

Blue - Switch uplinks

Black - Telephones

White - WiFi

Red - PoE

[Danp]

What ever I get my hands on that is the right size for what I need...

[catch21]

Red, anything important, Ruckus ZD, firewall

Orange, ISL

Yellow, WAP host PoE switches to core

Green, PoE to WAPs

Blue, digital signage

Grey, usually single host connections, PCs etc

Black, servers directly connected not patched i.e. cache server, windows server

[Fazza]

As long as it's documented it doesn't matter what you use.

 

Always stick with Grey for computer to network points as thats the most common (and therefore cheapest) colour.

Red is always good for important links that you mustnt touch such as uplinking switches together and connecting your router(s) to your network.

 

Other than that, the world is your oyster!

[fairm010]

What ever I get my hands on that is the right size for what I need...

 

^ This

[featured_spectre]

My work place has the following

 

Red: PoE Wifi points

Orange: Non-PoE Wifi points

Yellow: VOIP phones

Green: Network points to Patch Panels

Blue: Switches to Hubs

Purple: PC/Laptop to either network point or hub

Grey: Comms cab to comms cab (if in the same room)

Black: Router to hubs/switches

White: Comms Cab to servers/SANS

Fibre: Router to Comms Cab

DuoColour (Red/Green): Important stuff - firewalls, proxies, etc

 

Every cable is tagged also

Edited May 29, 2013 by featured_spectre

[Hefferzzzz]

Just remember to document what colours are for what purpose. Also, make sure you are paying attention when it comes to removing replacing the odd cable or the whole point of it goes out the window and you end up messing around for ages